Precision Castparts net sales jumped 16 percent to $2.36 billion in the third quarter of fiscal 2014 compared to the same period a year before, reflecting 1 percent organic growth. Analysts had expected $2.46 billion.

Net quarterly income attributable to the company reached $433 million, or $2.96 per share, from $338 million, or $2.30 per share, a year earlier. On average, 21 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected earnings per share of $3.04 for the quarter that ended Dec. 29.

Precision shares were down about $11, or 4 percent, at $259.38, in midday trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange. The company announced its quarterly results before the market opened.

Christian Mayes, an analyst at Edward Jones in St. Louis, said he felt the drop in Precision’s share price was overblown.

Mayes noted that Precision was hurt during the quarter’s final days by customers that asked the company to postpone delivery of products until the beginning of 2014, so they could keep cash and hit their targets. Precision ended up selling the goods in the current quarter.

“This one thing was outside the company’s control and it really was a onetime item,” Mayes said. “That’s clouding some of the other good things that are going on.”

Precision is capitalizing on a string of recent acquisitions, making the company more efficient. It’s able to supply more content on new planes, notably the Boeing 787, as the Dreamliner's production rate rises.

Mark Donegan, Precision chairman and chief executive, also said the postponed orders were a onetime phenomenon.

“During the quarter, we were hit harder than we have ever been before by last-minute customer schedule shifts, and we do not expect to see them again to this degree in the foreseeable future,” Donegan said in a news release. “We came to grips with these late-quarter challenges immediately, and we dealt with them as effectively as possible.”